Teenage double murderer jailed for at least 31 years

A drill rapper who committed two murders within a year has been locked up for at least 31 years.

Nyron Jean-Baptiste was found guilty of murdering 17-year-old Michael Jonas, who was fatally stabbed in Betts Park, Bromley, south London, on November 2 2017.

Almost exactly a year later, he murdered 15-year-old Jay Hughes outside a chicken shop in Bellingham, south-east London, on November 1 2018.

In 2019, Jean-Baptiste, 22, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 19 years for his part in Jay’s killing.

On Tuesday, Judge Peter Rook jailed him for life at the Old Bailey with a minimum term of 31 years for Michael’s murder.

Five co-defendants also received life sentences having been found guilty of murder after CCTV and forensics linked them to the crime.

Ryan Brown, 21, from Croydon, was handed a minimum term of 12 years.

Divon Henry-Campbell, 23, from Gravesend in Kent, received a term of 18 years; Jamie Marshall, 22, from Bromley, got 13 years; Jason Smith, 20, was handed 12 years and six months; and Sarraviho Smith, 24, was told he would spend at least 17 years in prison before being eligible for parole.

On Monday, Michael’s mother Petrona Anderson said her son would be “missed forever” and that his death gives her nightmares “every night”.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, she said: “I could not believe this was the same park I had been taking Michael to since he was very young and now he was lying on the ground, stabbed to death.

“The passing of my son makes me feel broken inside, as if a part of me has gone with him.

“Not a day goes by where I don’t think about him. I miss him so much.”

Ms Anderson added: “Michael was loved by everyone. He was a talented young man with goals and morals.”

Michael’s father, Michael Jonas Sr, said losing his son was the most “devastating” part of his life.

Mr Jonas worked as a bus driver for more than 22 years but had to give up his job as it was “difficult living my life knowing what happened to my son”.

He said: “Listening to the detail in court about how my son was brutally killed will stay with me for the rest of my days.

“No-one should ever have to bury their child first, it’s my death sentence.

“There is a hole in my heart that will stay there forever.

“These young men have shown no remorse for what they have done to my son. They had their chance to change and have not.”

He added that Michael was a “lovely person” who had just enrolled in college before he was killed.